Ubu Roi is one of the unlikeliest landmark texts in literature, marking if not exactly a point of transition, then certainly a declaration of intent against the conventions of theatre. It also retains a specific and infectious appeal arising from its origins and deployment; it is a schoolboy puppet show skit, translated to a stage with real actors by one of the most memorable eccentrics of the Parisian avant-garde.
The play’s origins lie in a tradition of mock-heroic plays or skits composed by schoolboys at the lycée de Rennes, dramatising the imaginary adventures of a figure based on hapless physics teacher Félix Hébert, and performed privately, variously through live action and puppetry. …
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